Dixon captures IRL season opener

AP PhotoScott Dixon celebrates his victory in Saturday's IRL IndyCar Series season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- New American open-wheel era or not, it was pretty much business as usual Saturday night in the IRL IndyCar Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

A Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry, this one driven by former series champion Scott Dixon, won the season-opener for the third straight year. He took the lead late in the 200-lap race when Tony Kanaan, another former champion, ran out of luck.

And, while none of the newcomers making the transition from the Champ Car World Series to the newly unified IndyCar series were able to compete with the leaders, forecasts of disaster proved wrong and the newcomers generally stayed out of the way of the faster cars and out of trouble.

Dixon, the New Zealand driver who lost the IRL IndyCar Series championship to Dario Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the last lap of the 2007 season, got off to a great start with the victory in the Gainsco Indy 300.

But it didn't look like his race to win.

Kanaan came out of the last round of green flag pit stops in the lead and appeared well on the way to a victory until Ernesto Viso, a rookie driving for one of the former Champ Car teams that just joined the IRL, punctured a tire and spun on the 193rd of 200 laps.

As Viso slid broadside across the track, Kanaan tried to duck around him and almost made it. But Kanaan hit Viso's car with the right front of his Dallara Honda, knocking his tire askew.

Kanaan stayed out front for several laps behind the pace car, with his damaged tire barely touching the ground. But he slowly drove his damaged car into the pits as the green flag waved on lap 197, giving up the lead to Dixon, who won for the second time on Homestead's 1.5-mile oval.

While Kanaan received condolences from his team, Dixon celebrated his 11th IndyCar victory.

"We were catching (Kanaan) quick and that was the best part about it," Dixon said. "It would have been close at the end.

"This is fantastic. I think it's four wins in a row for Ganassi cars at Homestead," added Dixon, who led 67 laps.

Kanaan was philosophical.

"This was a misfortune, yes," the Brazilian said. "But how many times have I won races because some other guy was lucky? With 10 laps to go I was looking around and I was thinking, 'This looks too easy.' "

Marco Andretti, who led a race-high 85 laps, finished second, about five car-lengths behind the winner. Andretti, the son of Andretti Green Racing team co-owner Michael Andretti and grandson of longtime racing great Mario Andretti, led from lap 122 until he got caught behind a lapped car and watched Kanaan race past on lap 161.

Second was a big accomplishment for Andretti, who broke a halfshaft and finished 15th at Homestead as a rookie in 2006, then had to park an ill-handling car and finished last in last year's race after he said he scared himself on the track.

"I'm a competitor and I want to win races but, after my luck here in the past, I'll gladly take second. You get a sense of a little bit of accomplishment," Andretti said. "Coming from last year, our goal was just to try to finish this race. We worked very hard to come up with a setup that works here and the car was very solid, very stable and we had some good speed."

Dan Wheldon, who had won the last three Homestead races, one for Andretti Green Racing and the last two for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, started at the rear of the 25-car field after crashing in Friday night's qualifying. He quickly moved up among the leaders and eventually led nine laps before finishing third, just ahead of Helio Castroneves, the last driver on the lead lap.

Ed Carpenter, who also had to start from the rear after both he and Vision Racing teammate A.J. Foyt IV were penalized when their cars failed post-qualifying inspection, finished a lap off the pace in fifth. Danica Patrick was sixth.

The race was run almost exactly a month after the announcement that the two rival American open-wheel series would become one under the banner of the IRL. Of the eight former Champ Car entries, Oriol Servia was the top finisher in 12th.

It was tough on the newcomers, who got their IRL cars within the last three weeks and had very little preparation time or testing.

"The car ran well to the end and that was the first goal," Servia said. "We'll get better. We've been better every time we go out. ... It was good fun and I can only imagine when we get up to speed how much fun it's going to be."

Despite the fact that most of the newcomers had little or no oval racing experience, there were only three caution flags in the race.

Before Viso spun, the only cautions were brought out by debris on the track and then when Milka Duno spun and hit Ryan Briscoe as he tried to squeeze by near the top of the banking.

"You could tell these were good, solid professional drivers out there," Wheldon said. "They're going to be tough before this season is over."

There was one more incident, with former Champ Car stars Will Power and Justin Wilson banging together on an early restart. A bent suspension ended Power's race in last place, but Wilson, who punctured a tire, was able to continue after pitting and finished 15th, seven laps behind Dixon.

"I'm very pleased we completed our first IndyCar Series race," said Wilson, who made his first start for eight-time CART/Champ Car champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. "I'm a lot more confident. I think our race pace is a lot better than our qualifying pace.

"I know we have a lot to do, but this gave us something to build on for the future."